Vegetative Fuel Mitigation

The act allows a fire protection district or a metropolitan district that provides fire protection services (district) to create a program to mitigate the presence of dead or dry plant material that can burn and contribute to a fire on privately owned property within a district (vegetative fuel program). A district that creates a vegetative fuel program may require an owner or occupier with an interest in private real property that contains vegetative fuel within the district to remove the vegetative fuel and assess a fine per incident of noncompliance. An incident covers all vegetative fuel on a property. A district may not require an owner or occupier of private real property to remove vegetative fuel on private real property that is classified as agricultural land by the tax assessor, owned by a nonprofit entity and leased for agricultural purposes, owned or occupied by a public utility with a vegetation management or wildfire mitigation plan to address vegetative fuel sources, or adjacent to a ditch that conveys decreed water rights or within the easement where the ditch is located.

In order to assess a fine, for each incident, the district must provide written notice by certified mail of the requirement to remove vegetative fuel and allow at least 14 days for the owner or occupier to comply. An owner or occupier that does not remove the vegetative fuel as provided in the first notice may be subject to a second notice requiring the removal of vegetative fuel. An owner or occupier has at least 14 days to comply with the second notice. An owner or occupier that does not comply within at least 14 days after the second notice may receive a third notice providing for a fine approximately equal to the cost of removing the vegetative fuel. The fine may not exceed $200 per property per incident, and an owner or occupier is not subject to more than one fine for the same incident. The sum of all fines assessed against a single property may not exceed $1,200. An owner or occupier receiving a third notice may avoid a fine by removing the vegetative fuel within 14 days of the date of the third notice.

A district may not access any privately owned real property without the written permission of the owner or occupier of the property. An owner or occupier is not liable to a district for damages to district personnel or equipment that occurs on the property while district personnel or equipment are present on the property to carry out a vegetative fuel program. A district may not use a drone to discover vegetative fuel on a property or to administer or enforce a vegetative fuel program created pursuant to the act.

The money that a district collects from a fine must be used by the district only to remove vegetative fuel on private real property within the district's jurisdiction. A district's board may waive the fine in all or in part, in its discretion if it determines that the fine was not assessed pursuant to law, an owner or occupier is financially unable to pay the fine, the vegetative fuel has been removed, or a waiver is appropriate under the circumstances and must prioritize use of the money to assist a low-income owner or occupier, a senior owner or occupier, or an owner or occupier with a disability in removing vegetative fuel from the owner or occupier's property. A district's board may also waive a fine for delays due to weather or upon a petition for a time extension from an owner or occupier if they have undertaken good faith efforts to remove the vegetative fuel. Good faith efforts include documentation from an arborist or licensed professional landscape architect that states when the arborist or landscape architect will be able to mitigate vegetative fuel on the property and the cost of mitigation. A district's board shall grant a property owner or occupier a time extension to mitigate or pay a fine for:

• No longer than 3 months if the cost to mitigate exceeds $1,000 and is less than $2,500;
• No longer than 6 months if the cost to mitigate equals or exceeds $2,500 and is less than $5,000;
• No longer than 9 months if the cost to mitigate equals or exceeds $5,000 and is less than $10,000; or
• No longer than one year if the cost to mitigate equals or exceeds $10,000.

A district's board shall adopt rules and policies after a public hearing, public notice and public comment to implement the act and shall post the adopted rules and policies to the district's website, on social media operated by the district, and in a local newspaper of general circulation. A vegetative fuel program may only be effective 30 days or more after posting of the adopted rules and policies on the district's website. As part of the rules and policies, a district shall designate an individual to oversee and manage the district's vegetative fuel program. A district may certify to the county treasurer a delinquent charge made or levied against a property, and the treasurer may collect and pay over the charge in the same manner that property taxes are collected and paid.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)